Alice Ivy is not one for social media. Sure, she retweets links to her radio listings, award nominations, and various interviews with PopMatters from throughout the years (hey there), but rarely does she play the popstar game of being snarky or posting stray observations. She has, on occasion, but you’d have to look back to 2019 for a post as personal as revealing she got a tattoo of her family dog eating a bag of biscuits.
Yet for the Victoria, Australia native, perhaps not engaging with social media metrics is part of a grander theme. Alice Ivy‘s excellent debut album, I’m Dreaming, came out in 2018, while her sophomore release, Don’t Sleep, had the misfortune of being released during a pandemic. As such, she took some time before dropping her third record, Do What Makes You Happy, wherein she moves away from the sample-based dance music of her early work and heads into more natural, organic sounds.
“I traveled so much while making this album, and I was drawing inspiration from a lot more organic, euphoric, textural sorts of sounds and production,” notes Ivy when speaking to PopMatters. “I think these naturistic themes just found their way into the lyrics organically.”
Yet even with the new album incorporating fewer DAW packs and more whistles and acoustic guitars, she still hasn’t forgotten her roots and certainly remembers the unforgettable feeling of having your first record unleashed into the world.
“I was at a party recently and someone had I’m Dreaming playing from start to finish,” she notes. “I honestly hadn’t listened to it since about 2019! There are some songs on there that I’m like, ‘OK, this still slaps.’ [laughs] It was my first album, and I made it within my first two years of producing music, so it captured a moment in time.”
While the turnaround between I’m Dreaming and Don’t Sleep was relatively quick, it was a full four years before Do What Makes You Happy saw the light of day, and per Ivy, it wasn’t due to a lack of trying. “Unfortunately, the main reason Do What Makes You Happy took so long to write was COVID!” she explains. “We had it pretty rough in Melbourne, and I couldn’t be in the same room with anyone to write, so as soon as I was able to get on a plane, I flew to LA!
“But despite that, I would say I’m a perfectionist, and that’s part of being an artist. I don’t think it’s ever possible for me to put something out that I’m 100% happy with. As an artist, you’re constantly overanalyzing and re-interpreting things. They can vary from tiny mix notes that only you’re hearing or even the BPM of a song.
“But what I’ve learned is that 99% of the time, those insecurities are just internal to me and not everyone’s ears. Art is art, and sometimes, accepting that whatever you created that day is what it’s meant to be is so much better! In saying that, I think Do What Makes You Happy is my favorite album I’ve ever made, and I’m very proud of it.”
While Ivy has been no stranger to collaboration, the new record features a litany of high-profile guest stars that serve as a co-sign for her ascent in the industry. Mayer Hawthorne, Låpsley, BJ the Chicago Kid, and Elohim are just a few of the many voices that give Do What Makes You Happy its sheen. Yet, for Alice Ivy, it’s never about “securing” a guest; her writing process is too organic for that to happen.
“I think it’s song by song,” she admits when asked about her process of choosing her guest spots. “I love collaborating and sharing the writing on a song because you can create something truly unique and wonderful! I have a bit of a feeling when I know a song needs something else, so whether that means a different vocalist on a new section or opening up the arrangement, I try to keep an open mind as much as possible.”
One of those key link-ups took quite a while to come to life. “‘Do I Need to Know What Love Is?’ with Josh Teskey took the longest [to create] I’d say,” notes Ivy. “That song had many different forms; the original demo was a lot slower, actually! I ended up deleting all the original stems except for Josh’s vocals, the horns in the chorus and some Juno parts, and I completely re-arranged the whole song. I just had a feeling it wasn’t finished, and it took a minute for everything to click. “
Yet another factor that comes into play is how a track will be received live, especially now that she’s toured the world and showed up on many a festival bill. “Whenever I’m writing in the studio, especially for Alice Ivy, I do have the thought, ‘What would this feel like to play live?’ running through the back of my head! But again, it depends on the vibe of what you’re working on.”
One of these collaborations is with her long-standing friend Mallrat, an alt-pop artist Ivy has worked with before but never featured on one of her albums. “Sometimes these things just take time!” Ivy admits. “We’ve written a bunch of stuff for her project and mine. We’re both back and forth between the United States and Australia, so finding the time and working around each other’s schedules is always a challenge! But I’m glad we finally got to make it happen!”
While other link-up tracks didn’t end up making the album cut (specifically her fun bop “Wave” with Daktyl), her meeting with Australian dance-pop legend Sam Sparro did, and to hear the two finally collaborate feels like a long-awaited meeting of minds, albeit virtually: “We were meant to write in person on my first trip back to the US, but I got sick so we did a Zoom session instead. We got along so well and I really hope I get to hang out with him IRL one day!”
While Ivy openly admits it’d be a joy to see one of her new songs reach a wider audience via Drag Race Down Under (“I would probably die if I had a song of mine feature in a lip sync battle, but I would say something with a key change could be spicy, maybe ‘Dandelion’ or ‘Sticky Situations’,” she muses), having the diegetic experience of hearing her own songs out in the real world is unbeatable. To quote her Låpsley duet, it makes her feel like a rockstar, baby.
“It’s the moments when I’m fully out of the music world that catch me off guard, like when I’m doing the grocery shopping or I’m super sleepy in the airport lounge at 6:00 am. Those are times when I’ve heard an Alice Ivy song and been like, ‘Oh wow!’”
If the reception to Do What Makes You Happy is any indication, she’ll be hearing her music out of store and car speakers for years to come.